Ok, I have a big fat crush on Sue, but I didn't find the argumentation presented in this talk all that convincing.

When one of them raised the issue of quantum indeterminacy, they quickly and rightly pointed out that on its face, this doesn't help us get to free will at all. And then they moved on. What they neglected to mention is that it doesn't help the case for determinism either. This is a wild card for both theories. I'm no physicist so I don't know what this will all come to, but it's one angle from which to examine the possibility that neither the proponent of free will or the advocate of determinism has got it exactly right.

Free will and determinism are very old categories and they may not be mutually exclusive, they may not even be mutually exhaustive, and it's possible that neither is terribly useful as an explanation of behavior. Daniel Dennett has argued that once we unpack the concept of free will in a way that makes sense (i.e. revise it) we can make a good scientific case for it, whereas Patricia Churchland has argued that the problem of free will vs. determinism as usually conceived is insoluble, and instead we should look at it in terms of the organism being more or less "in control."

I like Churchland's approach because it gets us further from speculative metaphysics and closer to something that can be operationally defined and manipulated.

I just listed to this Sue Blackmore audio on free will.

My experience of consciousness is that it is rising not the mind.

For example, my stomach desires certain food, the tung desires other food, and the mind with it's streams of thoughts, processes, and memory banks, as well the effects from the sensory-world comes up with various subtle impressions which their summation takes on an action, a movement... and I think that is what most people are considering free will... I do not consider that free will.

And within our mind we have objections, ethics, beliefs, and other such "structures" those structures allows us to build intellect and make more educated decisions of what actions we prevent ourselves from. Yet our impulses aren't free.

My experience of consciousness is that it rises from a place of just awareness, and behind that awareness is where there is this sense of true-Self. That true Self, inner-Soul, or whatever you may want to call it, is where out of that void/nothingness space an intention rises. Here, from my experience it seems that out of Self becoming cognizant of itself through consciousness, i.e. consciousness becoming cognizant of consciousness, the sense of real Self becomes born. From that place, we can begin taking actions beyond causality.

It also opens the gates to allow the mind go fully insane as it's no longer the ground for sanity. The mind realizes that it is a nobody, it can not do anything, it does not know and will never know. The mind realizes there is no free will, as will doesn't rise from mind.

I also wonder if anyone knows any research in the "para" realm with regards to free-will has been conducted on those who practice Samadhi meditation practices like Tibettan Lama/Rinpoche's, Yogi's, etc?

I recall some 10 years ago I read online about a research that was conducted on the brain waves of Tibetan Monks who would hold a small wired remote with a button on it. They were to push the button when they would enter Samadhi. During that research they found that the brains of these monks in that state was running at a radically different frequency... where normal people are between these alpha/beta/gamma/delta states which were ranging all less than 10hz (I'm speaking from memory, so this is all fragmented info... and I may be completely wrong on the numbers here) but that the frequency for their state was radically higher to something like 50hz.

I think that there is humility in realizes there is no free-will when it comes to the mind. I also feel that it's sad and unfortunate to humanity for not realizing the deeper dimensions of consciousness leading to Self.

I certainly don't expect to be able to tie a knot for others between spirituality and science... though at least for my own discovery and harmony of knowledge I seek my best effort hehe.

Thanks - one of the most refreshing talks I've heard in a while. I'd say she presented one of the closest renditions to the conclusions I've come to myself.